today's AMAZING TV AD : honda's "cog" 2 minute tv spot

for more on this, go to this post : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/04/cog-honda-tv-spot-another-amazing-ad.html; april 14 post.
the inspiration is mount pinatubo when some years ago, all of a sudden, after decades of being dormant, it decided to erupt, spewing debris and ash several kilometers high, blowing ashes to float everywhere, far and wide, turning the skies gloomy gray as far away as metro manila, hundreds of kilometers away, covering metro manila streets and rooftops with thick ash. the pinatubo eruption was so powerful that its ashes changed the color of sunsets not only in the philippines but also worldwide.

that's what happens when clients and advertising agencies decide to run ads not worthy to be called advertising. its dark, its huge and very irritating and unfortunately, everywhere!

all they are doing is wawam! what a waste of advertising money!

here is a first row view of Philippine Advertising and Philippine Marketing.

mount pinatubo erupts shooting ashes several kilometers high, then floating to blanket many other towns hundreds of kilometers away

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Sunday, December 7, 2008

nike tv ad banned in china for being offensive

this happened in 2004, but it is one more incident of nike releasing an ad that offended people, this time the chinese. the lebron james ad shows lebron conquering "enemies" but some of these are chinese and the dragon. the dragon is a very important symbol for the chinese.

the ad shows lebron battling with "enemies", a combination of real people, real characters and animation characters. the ad is very obviously over the top and an exaggeration, an ad that should not be taken literally.

being out in the west, we are used to seeing images like these - in movies, comics and cartoons on tv and none of it strike us as offensive and we don't really take these seriously. we are fully aware these images are just make believe and purely for entertainment value.

but we are not chinese and not chinese who live in china. it becomes a very different story all together for them. we can see these images here as just pure entertainment but in the eyes of the chinese who live in china, it is a violation of who they are and what they believe in. lebron has won over chinese people, even though they are the china of many centuries ago and the dragon, a symbol that is not really religion, religion is banned in china, but it does have the same kind of emotions and meanings as we have on religious symbols like the cross for christians. and those are what the chinese offensive.

different people react differently to stimulus. but a company like nike need to understand that and that sensibilities do exist and is a reality. advertising is a very public form of communication and it is a powerful one. knowing your limits is something advertisers should know very well.









"Offensive" Nike TV commerical banned
Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, December 6, 2004 6:38 PM


Last week Friday, the South China Morning Post and ChinaPR.com.cn both reported that Nike's new TV commercial was the subject of heated online discussions amongst Chinese people who found it offensive. The commercial, called 'Chamber of Fear' was produced by Nike's global advertising agent Wieden + Kennedy for global use.

The SCMP reported that Nike planned to continue using the commercial, despite the fuss. However, today the Beijing Youth Daily reports that the commercial has been banned by SARFT (State Administration of Radio, TV and Film), for insulting Chinese culture.

The commercial portrays NBA star LeBron James fighting his way through a pagoda of dangers and temptations. LeBron "keeps his mind on his game and his game on his mind" and conquers all. The problem is that all the dangers and temptations are Chinese people and symbols of China like dragons. So despite the fact that the commercial is quite clearly a pastiche of Bruce Lee movie scenes and video game cliches, it has been branded as insulting.



http://www.danwei.org/advertising_and_marketing/offensive_nike_tv_commercial_b.php
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